News Round-Up: November 12, 2020
Posted on by Randy Slovacek

News Round-Up: November 12, 2020

News Round-Up: November 12, 2020
CNN’s Phil Mattingly (image via GregInHollywood)

Some news items you might have missed:

• GregInHollywood: So, basically, everyone became pretty smitten with CNN’s Phil Mattingly (above) as he expertly handled ballot count recaps at the famed Magic Wall. Prior to joining CNN in 2105, Mattingly was at Bloomberg News where he was a national political correspondent.

• Instinct Magazine: After being attacked for having a porn past during his race for New Mexico’s House of Representatives, Roger Montoya won the race for state District 40 with 56.8 percent of the vote against his Republican opponent Justin Salazar-Torrez (who received 43.2 percent). The 59-year-old Democrat addressed the accusations and confirmed he had appeared in two adult films in the 1980s when he was 22.

• Out: Bi, trans, and nonbinary folks in Norway are celebrating a huge win after the country recently expanded its penal code that previously only protected lesbian and gay people from hate speech to include gender identity and all forms of “sexual orientation.”

• HuffPost: The Trump campaign’s primary source of “evidence” of ‘voting irregularities’ in Detroit apparently consists of pages of affidavits and complaints from Trump supporters about social distancing measures, and some people in the polls were wearing “Black Lives Matter” face masks and shirts. A woman named ‘Karen’ was reportedly upset she parked in the wrong place. The white Republican poll watchers appear to have been ready to treat any and all actions by election workers as nefarious criminal activity.

• Pink News: Hungary has announced it will move to ban adoption by same-sex couples claiming it’s ‘become necessary’ due to the coronavirus pandemic. LGBTQ Hungarians say the changes were deliberately drafted at a time when mass protests were not possible due to the coronavirus pandemic.

• Reuters: News bureau fact-checks false allegations of voter fraud in a video clip showing workers picking up mail-in ballots from ballot drop boxes in Los Angeles “after Election Day.” Some users referring to the videos allege the scene is proof of “election fraud.”

Mike Sanchez, a spokesman for the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC) told Reuters the ballots shown in these videos “are valid ballots and will be processed and counted in our Official Election Canvass. All vote by mail ballot drop boxes were closed and locked at 8 PM on Election Day. Ballots from all boxes throughout the County were picked up the following day.”